New Kids on the Block Concert

What a blast from the past! Carrie posted a message on Facebook saying that she had extra tickets to the NKOTB concert if anyone wanted to go with her and I thought, "Why not? It could be kind of fun." So I replied and we decided to take our girls. It turned out to be a whole Keele Girls Night Out (aside from Rachael, who we wish could have been with us.)

When I first heard that the New Kids were reuniting and going on tour I wasn't super excited. I loved them when I was a kid in junior high, but I just didn't think that they could come back with the same kind of intensity they had the first time around. Trent and I watched them on the Today show and totally laughed at their dance moves because it was a little bit weird seeing almost 40 year old men dance together like that. But, after going to the concert I am totally converted! Their performance was so much fun to watch, they just pulled you right in. Part way through the show they popped up in the middle of the floor about 20 feet away from us. Samantha & Susan were sitting in a different area and Sam actually got to hold Donnie's hand for a few seconds (I'm totally jealous). 

I love their new album and cannot stop listening to it (Trent HATES it, but I think he secretly likes that I am listening to them on my iPod because then he can listen to his Talk Radio, which I am not a huge fan of.) Saige had a lot of fun until the end when it got so loud. By the last song she was just sitting on her chair, plugging her ears. She even started to cry. It was excessively loud. My hearing was muted for a couple of days afterward and I was a little bit worried that I might have some kind of permanent hearing loss, but it's all good now. (Note to self: take earplugs to any future concerts. Also, don't wear high heels if you have floor seats-my feet were killing me after standing up the WHOLE time...I should totally invent some kind of convertible high heels, with removable or collapsible heels, wouldn't that be awesome? Then a heel lover like me could wear stilettos that could also be comfortable when necessary. I've got to patent that...)

Even the two opening acts were great. Lady Gaga was up first, with a lot of great dancing tunes. (You can hear her song, "Just Dance," on my playlist.) She was followed by Natasha Bedingfield, who I totally love (in fact, she was the one I was really excited to see). The whole night was awesome! We had such a great time hanging out together. I am one of those lucky people with awesome in-laws, who I love spending time with. 

I'd like to finish with a few acknowledgements (because I'm a dork). To Carrie: thanks for a fabulous time! To my Saigey: thanks for liking to hang out with your mom and liking her music. To Cori: who is a true fan and bought the album as soon as it came out, I am really sorry that you didn't get to go. Next time, I will totally go with you. To The Block: don't wait so long for the next album! I'm ready for another one already!

The Man in My Life & Then and Now

Our wedding day-July 30, 1994. Could I have gotten a bigger bouquet? 

Our 14 year anniversary.

I am combining two tags-one that I got a while ago from Adaire and a new, similar one from Lynsie.

1. What is your husband's name? Trent Roger

2. Where did you meet your husband? Discovery Research Center in Price (I always have to insert that I was his boss while we worked there.)

3. How long did you date before you got married? After 3 months we got engaged and 4 months later we got married. (That only happens in Utah.)

4. How long have you been married? 14 1/2 years

5. What does he do that surprises you? Very little. We share a brain. Although, he did get me an iPod and pajamas from PajamaGram for Valentine's Day this year-that was actually a HUGE surprise.

6. What is your favorite feature of his? His blue eyes.

7. What is your favorite quality about him? His sense of humor. He is really funny-weird, but funny. 

8. Does he have a nickname for you? Just the usual-honey, sweetie or babe.

9. What is his favorite sport? Lucky for me, he is not into sports, meaning that  I don't have to watch much of that on TV. He'll watch the Jazz if  they are in the playoffs and he likes to watch our kids play  ball. He loves to lift weights and has found a new passion for running.

10. When and where did you first kiss? At my parent's house in Huntington. He asked if he could kiss me and I said yes. Then he kissed me three times. Now, every night before we go to bed, he kisses me three times. 

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? We enjoy a good wrestling match, now and then. And when I say wrestling, I mean actual wrestling, so get your mind out of the gutter, you sick, twisted freak. It involves a lot of tickling and every once in  a while I get in a really great move that gets him incapacitated and laughing hysterically. If I should ever get attacked, my attacker is gonna be sorry. I've been practicing.

12. Do you have children? We have three great  kids.

13. Does he have any hidden talents? Yes, you should see him rip a phone book in half. Our kids think this is the coolest trick ever.

14. How old is he? 36

15. Who said "I love you" first? I told him that I thought I was falling in love with him after about a week of  dating him. Seriously, what was wrong with me? Not that I don't love him, but one week?!?

16. What is his favorite music? He loves classic rock like Def Leppard and AC/DC.

17. What do you admire most about him? His generosity. 

18. What is his favorite color? Blue, blue, blue. 

19. Does he do laundry? Once in a while, but just when he runs out of something.

20. Will he read this? Yes, because when I am done writing it I will hand him the computer and make him read it.

21. Who eats more sweets? That would definitely be me.

22. Who is taller? He is, thankfully.

23. Who can sing the best? Me again. 

24. Who is smarter? Depends on what you're talking about. Politics-definitely Trent, Spelling-definitely me.

25. Who pays the bills? Whoever gets to it first, most of the time it's me. 

26. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?  When we are in bed I am always on the right side. 

27. Who mows the lawn? Always Trent, never me. When we bought our lawnmower Trent insisted on getting the 

model without the self-propelling feature, so that mowing the lawn could be a workout. I begged him to spend the extra $20 for the self-propelled one, and then just not use it if he didn't want to, but he wouldn't do it. I told him that I would never mow the lawn with that lawnmower and I am proud to say that I never have.

28. Who cooks dinner? We usually make dinner together if we are both home. If I am teaching piano lessons, Trent will cook. He makes a killer lasagna.

29. Who drives? Trent

30. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Wow, I don't know about this one. We are both pretty stubborn. It's a toss-up, I guess.

31. Who asked who out first? Well, that is a long story. We were working at Discovery and I thought that he was cute, but he was really shy. I told another supervisor (Jay) that I liked Trent, so when I went on my lunch break, Jay told Trent that he should ask me out. After lunch I got to spend the rest of the day wondering what the heck Trent was thinking. He had to bring his surveys up to me, but he never said a word. I felt like such an idiot. I'm not sure how long it was until the end of our shift, but it felt like eternity. At the end of the night, Trent brought his time card up to be signed. He handed it to me and said, "will you sign this if you'd like to go out with me?" It was so cute and sweet, even though I had to sign it regardless of whether or not we went out.

32. Who wears the pants? Uh...I am the oldest of 7 children and therefore, am very bossy. So, according to Trent, I win this one, but I have yet to see him wear a dress (even for Halloween).

I could have meshed those questions together in a better order, but I'm too lazy to do that. This post is also having technical difficulties. Why does Blogger sometimes seem to have a mind of its own? I'm supposed to be in control. (I do wear the pants.) Anyway, I tag everyone who ever reads our blog. 

Photo Tag

I love getting tagged! It makes me think about things that I wouldn't normally write about. I have a few waiting to get finished, but I will get to them. This one was quick, so here it is. Megan tagged me with this fun idea-going to the 4th folder in my photos and posting the 4th picture. So, this seems like a really strange picture...here's the story. When I was a little girl my Grandma Christiansen held "Pink Day" for all the girls in her family. We all wore pink clothes, ate pink food and just did generally girlie things. When Grandma passed away a few years ago my Aunt Rene' held another Pink Day to remember her. We had such a blast that it has become a yearly tradition. The sock exchange has been a big hit each time we've done it. Each girl brings a crazy-silly-cozy-or-comfy pair of socks and we play some silly game to exchange them. The first year it was the Left/Right passing game played with a story about Grandma. Other years it's been truth or dare, which always proves to be exciting. (Think Aunt Becky running around the block in nothing but her bathrobe and shoes, Lindsay kissing Seleste's husband, Rene' mooning everyone or Katie eating a spoonful of dirt-who knew a pair of socks could be so important? Grandma would be so proud.) We love our Pink Day. Thanks, Rene', for bringing it back! 

I tag Cheri, Lynsie, Adaire, Cori, Carrie & Melissa. 

King's Peak Hike

Dad has wanted to climb Kings Peak for years now. After talking about it I found time to go in August. So we planned to spend 4 days after our Lake Powell trip. We had to plan menus, buy or borrow proper gear and get tents fixed. I was concerned about Gavin, this being his first real hiking experience, I didn't know if it would be too much for him. Dad and I hadn't done any real hiking in some time either, so I wasn't sure if any of us were up to the challenge. While we were at Lake Powell I tore the skin off the ball of my right foot, while climbing some cliffs to jump off of, and wasn't sure I could even go. It seemed to heal enough, and we took Mole Skin just in case. 

I didn't want to take our big, bulky camera, so Kacie asked us to stop on our way and buy a disposable camera to take pictures, but I forgot and we were stuck with just my BlackBerry for pictures. I'm glad we went on a Monday, because there was almost no one else on the trail, so it was hard to get a picture of all three of us together. We couldn't ask for better weather, almost no wind and sunny all the time, it was just beautiful and peaceful. We were disappointed we didn't see more wildlife. Other than small birds, one of which my dad nearly killed while at the summit, the only wildlife we saw was a mamma moose and her calf on the third day. The first day we hiked about ten miles to Dollar Lake and set up our base camp, we were all very tired and sore, but I think Gavin was in the worst shape. We kept telling Gavin the hard work would be over when we got to Dollar Lake, that the climb to the summit wouldn't be that hard because we would only be taking daypacks. As it turns out the climb to the summit was just as hard and longer than our first day. We didn't get back until almost 8 PM, and we were tired. The view from the summit was awesome, skies were clear with some clouds, you could see the wind turbines along I-80 in Wyoming that will increase our electric bills. (Thanks for vowing to bankrupt the coal industry, Obama, putting millions of people with high paying jobs out of work. But I digress...) The third day we just took it easy trying to recuperate a little, we hiked about halfway back to the trailhead and set up camp. The truth is my feet hurt so bad I could barely make it as far as we did that day. The fourth day we packed up and headed back to the truck, we must have passed 50 or more people all going in. As I said earlier, I'm glad we went on a Monday-we almost had the place to ourselves.

Newest Teenager on the Block

I officially became the mother of a teenager last Sunday. We have had a crazy, busy week, so I am finally getting around to posting this. We had a really great day, Grandma & Grandpa Keele were here in the morning and came to church with us. It was our ward's Primary program, so it was really nice to have them with us for that. After church, we went to Lehi to celebrate with the Powell's. Grandpa Powell's birthday is Nov 11th, so we celebrated both their birthdays. On Monday, we went back to our new favorite place, Jump On It, where we, once again, had a ball.

It's a tradition in our family to record the birthday boy or girl's favorite things each year, so here are Gavin's favorites:

Food: Pizza

Treat: Blondies

TV Show: Lost

Movie: Iron Man

Book: Capt. Hook

Game: Madden 2009

Hobby: Playing PSP (I'm convinced that his actual favorite hobby is making random sound effects to annoy me. It's what he does nonstop throughout the day.)

Color: Red

Sport: Basketball

Music: Dashboard Confessional

Friends: Jake & Zack

Girl: Mom (That's a big fat lie, but it's what he says every year to get out of telling me who he really likes. Lucky for me, he has a little brother who doesn't mind spilling his secrets.)

Last year, we took a picture of Gavin and I standing back to back and we were about the same height. This year he has at least 3 inches on me, possibly 4. His feet are HUGE and he eats so much that I frequently worry that there will be nothing left in the fridge when I go to make dinner.

2007

2008

I am terrified about what being the mother of a teenager means. The attitude is already more than I can take some days, but there are rare moments where we just connect in a way that is so absolutely cool that it makes all the hard stuff totally worth it.

Halloween 2008